Monday, June 15, 2009

I’m ending our short series on painting fabric surprises with a technique that takes a bit more time. Although it starts out with unpredictable results, the second half of the process is much more deliberate and controlled. Double the fun!
For the first two fabric painting techniques, visit these links:Painting fabric in a bagTwisted fabric painting
This time, you'll need the usual ripped or cut piece of plain muslin, acrylic paints, a large soft brush or painting sponge, tape of different widths, and a large stamp or two.

1. Wet your fabric until it is dripping. Stick your brush or painting sponge into thinned acrylic paint and wipe it clean on the fabric. To do this, wad the wet fabric up in your hand, and pull the brush through the folds, squeezing to clean all the paint off of it. Reapply paint and repeat. Splatter the fabric with some random drops of paint as well. Color used: Primary cyan

2. Use additional colors and repeat the first step. If you allow the fabric to dry in between colors, you will get a different result from mine: I kept the fabric wet and added color until I liked the result. Color used: Dioxazine purple

3. Allow the fabric to dry and iron it flat.

4. Tape the fabric to a waterproof surface and create a grid pattern with the different widths of tape. Mix up a color that's a bit darker than the background, and use your large soft brush or sponge to pounce it around the edges of the tape. Don't fill each of the squares of fabric completely. Let the fabric dry. Color used: Medium magenta

5. Remove the tape from the dry fabric and apply stamps as desired. I used a metallic acrylic paint for this last step. Color used: Iridescent copper

6. Iron the fabric thoroughly in order to heat set the paints.

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Copyright 2009 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.